Translation of a shader assembly language binary for debugging a graphics application running on a remote device

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the invention provide a debugging tool configured to translate a pre-compiled binary shader as part of debugging a graphics application running on a remote device. An instrumented driver may capture and serialize each graphics API call invoked by a graphics application running on the remote device along with any pre-compiled binary shader programs supplied by the graphics application. The graphical application debugger may translate the shader program into a form appropriate for graphics hardware present on the host system. By replaying the same sequence of API calls invoked on the target device using the same shader programs, the graphical application debugger may generate and display the same image displayed on the target device without the latency of waiting for a full set of framebuffer data to be transmitted over the communication link for each frame rendered on the target device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/830,731, entitled “Serialization of Function Calls to a Graphics API for Debugging a Remote Device,” filed on Jul. 30, 2007. This related patent application is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to computer graphics and, more specifically, to the translation of a binary shader program for debugging a graphics application running on a remote device.

2. Description of the Related Art

The term rendering refers to a process performed by computer software and hardware in generates images that portray an object or scene. For example, a hand-held video game system may be configured to sequentially render frames of animation for a video game. Typically, graphics hardware includes a graphics pipeline configured to render frames by performing object, geometry, vertex, and raster operations on a set of graphics primitives designated for each frame. The graphics pipeline is often highly configurable. For example, the graphics pipeline may be configured with different shader programs, lighting constants, and texture maps, among other things. Typically, a graphics application invokes calls provided by the graphics API in order to render elements of a 3D scene, the most common being a “draw” call passed the coordinates of a polygon (e.g., a triangle) to be rendered. Widely used graphics APIs include the OpenGL® API distributed by the Khronos group and the Direct3D® API distributed by Microsoft®. A hardware driver provides an interface between the graphics API and a particular set of graphics hardware.

A typical cycle for debugging the graphics application includes compiling and running the application. As the application is running, the developer looks for any anomalies or visual artifacts in frames rendered by the hardware and software. Visual artifacts may include elements of a frame that have an appearance other than what was intended by the developer, and non-visual anomalies includes poor performance of the graphics application, such as a low rendering frame rate. These issues may occur due to the application setting an incorrect render state, using a non-optimal or incorrect texture, or the use of incorrect parameters supplied to draw calls, among other things.

Application developers commonly perform simple experiments to diagnose and resolve these types of visual artifacts and performance issues. For example, the developer may experiment with the graphics application by tweaking program source code, adjusting a render state, or changing parameters of the graphics pipeline. The developer then runs the application to observe the result. Although this approach can be effective, it often becomes a cumbersome process. Further, when trying to diagnose and correct a problem on a certain target platforms such as an embedded or hand-held device (e.g., a hand-held video game console, a mobile phone, PDA, or convergence device), the debugging process may be even more complicated as the graphics application must be deployed to the target device.

To address the inefficiency resulting from a purely ad-hoc approach, graphical application debuggers are available. However, these applications typically execute on the same system as the graphics application. For some devices, this approach is, at best, impractical due to the screen size of these devices. For example, most of the handheld video game devices currently available include screen resolutions of 320×240 or 640×480 pixels. Thus, the display screens may be too small to provide developers with a useful debugging interface. Further, the hand-held device may not have the processing power (or multi-tasking capability) required to run a graphical application debugger alongside a graphical application.

One approach to debugging an application for an embedded or handheld device is to debug the application remotely, for example, from a desktop personal computer. In such a case, a debugging tool should allow the developer to view the contents of the framebuffer on the remote device to help identify rendering bugs. For example, a debugging tool may be configured to capture the contents of a framebuffer on the remote device after a frame is rendered and transmit this information to the debugging tool running on a connected computer. However, this approach often requires significant bandwidth and, thus, often reduces the interactivity of the debugging tool. For example, for a remote device with a 640×480 display, a bitmap image for a single frame includes data for 307,200 pixels. With frame rates for a hand-held video game device often reaching 18-24 frames per-second, or more, waiting for large amounts of framebuffer data to be transmitted for each frame may substantially diminish the usefulness of the debugging tool.

An alternative approach is described in a related patent application titled “Serialization of Function Calls to a Graphics API for Debugging a Remote Device,” filed on DATE. This related application discloses a method in which a desktop PC may be configured to “play back” a sequence of serialized API calls for a given frame in order to recreate the contents of the remove device's framebuffer on the connected system. While this approach works well, problems arise when the graphics pipeline on the remote device includes programmable shading units. In such a case, the graphics application running on the remote device may include binary shader programs submitted to the graphics pipeline. Because the binary shader programs are pre-complied for the particular graphics hardware on the remote device, they cannot be replayed on the host system like the graphics API calls.

As the foregoing illustrates, there remains a need in the art for techniques to debug a graphics application running on a remote device, particularly where the graphics application includes shader programs compiled for the graphics hardware of the remote device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the invention provide a debugging tool configured to translate a pre-compiled binary shader as part of debugging a graphics application running on a remote device. An instrumented driver may capture and serialize each graphics API call invoked by a graphics application running on the remote device along with any pre-compiled binary shader programs supplied by the graphics application. The graphical application debugger may translate the shader program into a form appropriate for graphics hardware present on the host system.

One embodiment of the present invention sets forth a method for debugging a graphics application configured to execute on a target device. The method generally includes establishing a communication link between the target device and a host system executing a host component of a graphical application debugger and invoking the graphics application on the target device. The graphics application may be configured to invoke graphics API calls implemented by an instrumented driver provided for a graphics pipeline present on the target device and the instrumented driver may include a target component of the graphical application debugger. The method also includes detecting, for a given frame rendered by the graphics pipeline on the target device, a graphics API call invoked by the graphics application as part of rendering the given frame and identifying a shader program bound to a processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device. The method also includes serializing the graphics API call and the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes and transmitting the serialized stream of bytes to the host component of the graphical application debugger over the communication link.

Once received by the host component, the method may also include de-serializing the stream of bytes to identify the graphics API call invoked by the graphics application and the shader program and translating the shader program into a form usable by a graphics pipeline present on the host system. The method also includes binding the translated shader program to a processing unit present on the graphics pipeline on the host system and performing the de-serialized graphics API call to generate a portion of framebuffer data for a display image.

Advantageously, by replaying the same sequence of API calls invoked on the target device using the same shader programs, the graphical application debugger may generate and display the same image displayed on the target device without the latency of waiting for a full set of framebuffer data to be transmitted over the communication link for each frame rendered on the target device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to embodiments, some of which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual illustration of a client server environment for debugging a graphics application executing on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a state diagram of a communication protocol used by a target system to debug and tune a graphics application running on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a state diagram for a communication protocol of a host system executing a graphics application being debugged by a graphical application debugger running on a host system, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for a host system to debug and tune a graphics application running on a remote graphics device, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIGS. 5-7 are conceptual illustrations of a user interface of a graphical application debugger running on host system used to debug and tune a graphics application running on a target device, according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method for translating a pre-compiled binary shader as part of debugging a graphics application running on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the invention provide a debugging tool configured to translate a pre-compiled binary shader running on a remote device as part of debugging a graphics application. The remote device may be a hand-held video game console, a mobile phone, or convergence device, and may also be a personal computer system. In one embodiment, a graphical application debugger may include a host component and a target component. The host component executes on a host system and presents a debugging interface to a developer. The interface may provide a collection of data related to the execution state and performance of the graphical application and a graphics pipeline on the target device.

The target component executes on the remote device and may record data related to the performance of the graphics pipeline and transmit this data back to the host system over a communication link. For example, the target device may include an instrumented version of a graphics device driver configured to communicate with the host component of the graphical application debugger. In one embodiment, rather than transmitting rendered frames using a bitmap image captured from the framebuffer of the remote device, an instrumented driver may capture each graphics API call used to render a given frame. The graphics API calls may then be serialized and transmitted to the host component as a stream of data. The host component receives the serialized data, desterilizes it, and performs the same sequence the graphics API calls performed by the remote device. For example, the host system may perform the graphics API calls using graphics hardware present on the host system. Because both the host system and target device may have versions of the same graphics API available, the host system may “play back” the sequence of graphics API calls to generate a display frame.

In one embodiment, the version of the graphics API on host system is a superset of the graphics API the remote device. For example, the OpenGL ES API (used for embedded systems) is a largely a subset of the OpenGL API (used for a PC). However, when the graphics application running on the remote device includes pre-completed binary shader programs, such shader programs cannot be executed by the graphics hardware on host system. Accordingly, in one embodiment, the debugging tool may be configured to examine the binary shader program and translate it into an equivalent shader program appropriate for the graphics hardware present on the host system. By using translated versions of binary shader programs, the host component of the graphical application debugger may generate and display the same image as displayed on the target device when the host system replays the sequence of graphics API calls.

FIG. 1 is a conceptual illustration of a client server environment 100 for debugging a graphics application executing on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention. The client server environment 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 is included to be representative of existing computer systems, e.g., desktop computers, server computers, laptop computers, tablet computers, handheld devices, and the like. However, the software applications described herein are not limited to any particular computing system or device and may be adapted to take advantage of new computing systems as they become available. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the components shown in FIG. 1 are simplified to highlight aspects of the present invention and that a typical host system 105 and target device 125 may include a broad variety of additional components.

Additionally, the software applications illustrated in system 100 may be implemented to execute on a single computer system or on distributed systems communicating over computer networks such as local area networks or large, wide area networks, such as the Internet. Also, embodiments of the invention may be provided as an application program (or programs) stored on computer readable media such as a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, flash memory module, or other tangible storage media.

As shown, client server environment 100 includes a host system 105, a target device 125 having a display screen 130, and a communication link 120. Host system 105 is a computer system configured to execute a host component 110 ₁ of a graphical application debugger. Illustratively, host system 105 also includes a user interface 115, a graphics API 103, a graphics processing unit 106 having a graphics pipeline 107, and a shader program cache 109.

User interface 115 may provide a developer with any combination of graphical elements such as windows, menus buttons, ribbons, dialog boxes, etc., used to analyze and debug a graphics application 160 running on target device 125. User interface 115 may allow the developer to initiate a debugging session and perform a variety of debugging functions. For example, user interface 115 may display a rendered frame along with a semi-transparent overlay of graphics, charts, tables, etc., presenting data related to the performance of graphics application 160 running on target device 125.

Host component 110 ₁ may be configured to communicate with a corresponding target component 110 ₂ on target device 125 over communication link 120. For example, Host component 110 ₁ may be configured to communicate with target component 110 ₂ over a TCP/IP network or over a direct connection such a USB, Firewire, or serial connection. Of course, other network protocols and/or connection standards may be used. Moreover, in one embodiment, target device 105 and host system 125 may be the same machine, in which case communication link 120 may be an inter-process messaging system.

In one embodiment, host component 110 ₁ uses a communication protocol to engage in a variety of debugging transactions with host component 110 ₁ on target device 125. Transactions may include commands sent from the host system 105 to target device 125 to control the configuration or state of a graphics processing unit 140 or a graphics pipeline 145. For example, commands sent over communication link 120 may allow the developer to change the animation speed of graphical application 160, select individual frames of animation to evaluate in detail, cull out specified batches of graphics primitives, temporarily alter or disable state elements of the graphics API (e.g., lighting). Other transactions may include streaming performance counters and graphics data from target device 125 to host system 105 (as part of a real-time streaming mode), and sending serialized API calls, one or more of shader programs 147, and pipeline-state and/or frame data from target device 125 to host system 105 (as part of a frame-debugging or performance analysis mode).

In one embodiment, user interface 115 may generate an image of a given frame rendered on target device 125 by performing the same sequence of graphics API calls invoked on target device 125. The graphics API calls invoked on target device 125 may be transmitted over communication link 120 as a serialized stream of data. Once received, stream may be de-serialized and the decoded graphics API calls may be passed to graphics API 103. In such a case, the graphics API calls may be executed on graphics processing unit 106 and graphics pipeline 107 of the host system 105. This may be useful when a graphics API 152 running on target device 125 is a version of graphics API 103 running on the host system 105. For example, both host system 105 and target device 125 may be running a version of the OpenGL® graphics API or the DirectX® graphics API. In such a case, the same API calls may be invoked on both host system 105 and target device 125. By processing the API calls received over communications link 120, graphics API 103 and graphics processing unit 106 may generate a frame displayed on user interface 115 that matches a frame generated by target device 125 and displayed on display screen 130.

Further, any pre-compiled binary shader programs 147 used to generate a given frame on target device 125 may also be transmitted as part of the serialized stream of data. In response, shader translator 108 may be configured to translate a given shader program 147 into a form appropriate for the graphics pipeline 107 of graphics processing unit 106. Additionally, the translated shader program may be stored in a shader program cache 109. Doing so may improve debugger performance, as each given shader program 147 only needs to be transmitted once during a debugging session.

Target device 125 may be any type of device configured to execute graphics application 160. Examples of target device 125 include a hand-held video game console, a hand-held media player, a mobile phone, or a convergence device combining these types of devices in the same physical package. Of course, target device 125 may also be a personal computer system. Target device 125 may also be a development board having all the hardware components of a prototype device. As shown, target device 125 includes a display screen 130, a frame buffer 135, graphics processing unit (GPU) 140, an instrumented driver 150, a CPU 155 and graphics application 160.

Graphics application 160 represents a software application executing on CPU 155. For example, graphics application 160 may be a video game running on a hand-held gaming device. Central processing unit (CPU) 155 is the processor executing graphics application 160. In one embodiment, graphics application 160 may invoke functions configured to perform specific graphics rendering tasks, typically defined by graphics API 152 (e.g., the OpenGL API). One well-known graphics task defined by graphics API 152 is a call to a “draw” function. When graphics application 160 invokes functions of graphics API 152, instrumented driver 150 may be configured to perform the command on GPU 140. More generally, instrumented driver 150 may implement the functionality of a standardized interface provided by the graphics API for the specific graphics hardware of target device 125.

As shown, graphics application 160 includes a collection of shader programs 147. Typically, shader programs 147 are pre-compiled for the particular hardware present on target device 125. For example, well known shader programming languages include the CG and GLSL shading languages. Shader programs composed from these languages are typically pre-compiled for a particular target device and included with graphics application 160. Shader programs composed using either of these (or other shading) languages may be pre-complied for a particular target device 125 and stored in graphics application 160. While rendering frames, graphics applications 160 may transmit one of shader programs 147 to instrumented driver 150, which in turn, may bind that shader program 147 to a shading unit present on graphics pipeline 145. The bound shader program is then executed for graphics data flowing through graphics pipeline 145.

Also as shown, instrumented graphics driver 150 includes a target component 110 ₂ of a graphical application debugger, a graphics API 152, a function call serializer 154, and a shader table 156. In one embodiment, target component 110 ₂ provides a counterpart to host component 110 ₁. In addition to performing the graphics API calls invoked by graphics application 160, instrumented driver 150 may include code instructions that monitor and record performance and state data related to specific components of GPU 140 and graphics pipeline 145. Function call serializer 154 may be configured to serialize each graphics API call invoked by graphics application 160 and transmit the serialized API calls to host system 105 over communication link 120. As is known, serialization generally refers to a process of encoding data as an ordered sequence of bytes. The reverse operation, extracting data from a serialized stream of bytes, is referred to as de-serialization. In the context of the present invention, each graphics API call and any associated parameters, may be serialized. Further, as stated, shader programs 147 used by graphics pipeline 145 to generate a given frame may also be serialized and transmitted to host system 105 over communication link 120. In one embodiment, shader table 156 may indicate which shader programs have been transmitted to host system 105. For example, each shader may be associated with a different identifier (ID). This enables instrumented driver 150 to only have to transmit each of shader programs 147 once during a given debugging session. That is, once instrumented driver 150 serializes and transmits a given shader program 147 during a debugging session for one rendered frame, if that same shader program 147 is also used for another rendered frame, then the instrumented driver only need transmit the ID associated with that shader program 147.

Graphics pipeline 145 may provide a collection of shading units configured to perform 3D graphics functions. As is known, this may include functions to compute lighting effects, object transformations, and 3D motion, among others. Common shader units that may be present on graphics pipeline 145 include a vertex shader unit, geometry shader unit, pixel shader unit, and raster operations unit. As is known, the shading units of a graphics pipeline may be configured to serially process graphics data, beginning from a set of graphics primitives, and ultimately determine a color and intensity value for each picture element (i.e., for each pixel) on display screen 130. Typically, pixel values are computed and stored in frame buffer 135 until a complete image is generated and output to display screen 130. Further, as stated, the shading units on graphics pipeline 145 may be configured using one of shader programs 147.

FIG. 2 illustrates a state diagram 200 of a communication protocol used by a target device executing a graphics application being debugged by a graphical application debugger running on a host system, according to one embodiment of the invention. As shown, state diagram 200 includes a collection of target device states 205-250, and a set of transitions between states represented by the directed arrows linking states 205-250. Listen state 205 corresponds to a state where a graphics application may be running on a target device, but no connection is presently established between the target device and host system running a graphical debugging application. In such a state the instrumented driver may listen for a command from a host system. From state 205, the target device may transition to an establish connection state 210 when a command is received from the host system to establish a connection. In state 210, the target device may engage in a “handshake” operation with a host system. In one embodiment, for example, the target device may send a four-byte (or other size) value over the communication link to identify the type of target device, capabilities of the graphics pipeline, what version of the instrumented driver and which version of a particular graphics API (e.g., the OpenGL® API) is running on the target device, and other similar types of information. The target device may remain in state 210 until receiving a response message from the host system, completing the “handshake.” If an error occurs, the target device may transition to an exception recovery state 215 and then back to either of states 205 and 210.

Once a connection is established between the target device and the host system, the target device may transition to real-time application monitoring state 225. While in state 225, the target device may execute a graphics application and render frames using the GPU and graphics pipeline. At the same time, the target component of the graphical application debugger included in the instrumented driver may record performance and state data related to the GPU and the graphics pipeline. In one embodiment, the instrumented driver may be configured to transmit the performance data over the communications link established with the host system. Typically, while in state 225, the developer interacts with the graphics application running on the target device until identifying a frame which exhibits poor performance or unwanted visual artifacts. At such a time, the developer may transition the state of the target device from state 225 to either an initialize frame-debug state 220 or an initialize performance-profiling state 230.

In frame-debug state 220, the instrumented driver may be configured to suspend the application running on the target device along with the processing being performed on the graphics pipeline. The target device may transition to state 220 in response to receiving a command to do so from the host system. From state 220, the target device may transition to a send frame state 240, where the instrumented driver transmits information about the selected frame to the graphical application debugger running on the host system. For example, the instrumented driver may transmit the contents of texture buffers, values of filtering parameters, the parameters supplied to the draw calls used to draw the frame, the geometry and vertex data supplied to the graphics pipeline, etc. Once transmitted, the developer may inspect and evaluate a broad variety of elements related to the selected frame where the application was suspended. Further, as stated, rather than transmitting the raw contents of the framebuffer on the remote device, the instrumented driver may capture each graphics API call and shader program used to render a given frame. In turn, each such API call and shader program may be serialized by the function call serializer and transmitted to the host system over the communication link.

In performance-profiling state 230, the instrumented driver may also suspend the application running on the target device. From state 230, the target device may transition to a send frame state 245, where the instrumented driver performs a series of tests to query various driver and GPU performance counters for each draw call in the current frame and transmit this information along with the serialized API calls and/or shader programs relevant to a given frame to the graphical application debugger running on the host system.

From states 240 and 245, after transmitting either the frame debugging data or the performance profile data, the target device may transition to an idle state 250. The target device may remain in this state until receiving a command from the graphical application debugger running on the host system to transition to back to one of initialize frame-debug state 220, real-time application monitoring state 225, or initialize performance-profiling state 230.

FIG. 3 illustrates a state diagram 300 of a communication protocol used by a host system configured to debug and tune a graphics application running on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention. State diagram 300 corresponds to state diagram 200, from the perspective of the host system. The commands received by the target device are sent by the host system, and the responses and data sent by the target device are received by the host system. As shown, state diagram 300 includes a collection of host system states 305-350, and a set of transitions between states 305-350 represented by the directed arrows. An open connection state 305 corresponds to a state where the host system sends a command to the target device (then in a listen state 205). From state 305, the host system device may transition to an establish connection state 310. In this state, the host system may engage in its part of the “handshake” operation mentioned above. In one embodiment, for example, the host system may send a four-byte (or other sized) value over the communication link to provide the target device with information related to the capabilities of the graphical application debugger running on the host system. If an error occurs, the host system may transition to an exception recovery state 315 and then back to either of states 305 and 310.

Once a connection is established between the target device and the host system, the host system may transition to a performance data receiving state 325 (corresponding to real-time monitoring state 225 of the target device). While in state 325, the host system may receive data over the communications link related to the performance of the target device. The host system may present this data to the developer with any combination of graphs, charts, or tables highlighting different aspects of application performance. In one embodiment, the graphical application debugger on the host system may use timing graphs to show how much time is being spent on various tasks for each frame. This information may include, for example, milliseconds per frame, percentage of time the CPU or GPU sits idle, memory usage, number of draw calls, overhead, and amount of time shading units of the graphics pipeline are active or idle, etc. Typically, while in state 325, the developer may interact with the graphics application running on the target device until identifying a frame which exhibits poor performance or unwanted visual artifacts.

In state 320, corresponding to states 220 and 240 of the target device, the host system may receive debug information from the target device for a selected frame. As mentioned, for example, the instrumented driver may send the host system the contents of texture buffers, values of filtering parameters, the serialized API calls, shader programs used to draw a given frame, along with the geometry and vertex data supplied to the graphics pipeline, etc. Once transmitted, the host component may be configured to perform the same API calls invoked on the target device in order to generate a set of framebuffer data equivalent to the framebuffer on the target device.

In state 330, corresponding to states 230 and 245 of the target device, the host system may receive profile information from the target device related to the profiled performance characteristics of the target device. From states 320 and 330, after receiving the frame debugging data or the performance profile data, the host system may transition to an idle state 350. In state 350, the communications link remains established and available, but no commands are sent from the host system to the target device. The host system may remain in state 350 until a developer uses the graphical application debugger to send a command to transition to back to one of states 320, 325, and 330.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 400 for a host system to debug and tune a graphics application running on a remote graphics device, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Persons skilled in the art will understand that even though the method is described in conjunction with the systems of FIG. 1, any system configured to perform the steps of method 400, in any order, is within the scope of the present invention.

At step 405, the developer may initiate a debugging application on the host system. Once initiated, at step 410, the debugging application may begin establishing a connection with a target device. For example, the debugging application on the host system may send a command over a communication link to begin the “handshake” process mentioned above and wait for a response from the target device. At step 415, the developer may initiate the graphical application on the target device.

With the connection established, the graphical debugging application running on the host system may be used to debug the application running on the target device. Accordingly, at step 420, a loop begins that includes steps 420-460, in which the instrumented driver of the target device sends data regarding the application being debugged to the host system based on the operational mode selected by the developer. At step 420, the target device identifies the operational mode of the debugger. In one embodiment, when first initiated, the graphical debugging application begins in the real-time streaming mode until the developer transitions to another mode. At step 430, if the real-time monitoring mode is active, then at step 435, the instrumented driver transmits pipeline state data while the graphics application executes on the target device. As stated, for example, for example, the instrumented driver may send data to the host system regarding milliseconds per frame, percentage of time the CPU or GPU sits idle, memory usage, number of draw calls, overhead, and amount of time shading units of the graphics pipeline are active or idle, etc. The host system receives this information and may display any combination of graphs, charts, or tables highlighting different aspects of application performance. Additionally, while in the real-time monitoring mode, the developer may be able to control some aspects of the graphical application running on the target device. For example, the developer may change the animation speed of graphical application, temporarily alter or disable state elements of the graphics API (e.g., lighting), etc.

At step 460, once the developer identifies a frame to evaluate in detail, the developer may use the graphical application debugger to send a mode change command to the target device. Method 400 then returns to step 420, where the target device identifies the operational mode of the debugger.

At step 440, if a debugging mode is active, then the instrumented driver on the target device may generate and send frame data for the currently selected frame to the host system. As stated, in debug mode, the instrumented driver may transmit the contents of texture buffers, values of filtering parameters, and the serialized API calls used draw calls used to draw the frame along with the geometry and vertex data supplied to the graphics pipeline on the remote device.

Alternatively, at step 450, if the developer has selected a profiling mode, then at step 455, the instrumented driver on the target device may generate and send profiling data for the currently selected frame to the host system. As stated, in performance profiling mode, the instrumented driver may perform a series of tests to query performance of the graphics pipeline. From steps 435, 445, and 455.

FIGS. 5-7 are conceptual illustrations of a user interface of a graphical application debugger running on host system used to debug and tune a graphics application running on a target device, according to one embodiment of the invention. More specifically, FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary view of an interface for the real-time monitoring mode of the graphical application debugger running on the host system (state 325 of FIG. 3). As shown, interface 500 includes a status box 505 indicating the name of a graphical application running of particular type of target device. Also, status box 500 indicates that a connection has been established and that the graphical application debugger is currently in a real-time monitoring mode. A collection of buttons 510 may be used to increase or decrease animation speed on the target device, pause rendering on the target device, or transition to other modes.

Also as shown, timing graphs 515 and bar graphs 520 present a visual indication of the performance of the graphics pipeline on the target device. Illustratively, timing graphs 510 show a timing graph for CPU and GPU utilization as well as a frame rendering rate. Bar graphs 520 provide an indication of how much video memory and system memory is being used on the target device. Of course, the content of timing graphs 515 and bar graphs 520 provide examples of what information may be communicated from a target device and presented on interface 500, and other aspects of the real-time rendering performed by the target device may be presented on interface 500. Additionally, interface 500 may allow the developer to modify the rendering state of the target device to isolate portions of the graphics pipeline or evaluate different aspects of rendering performance. For example, the developer may test for texture bandwidth bottlenecks by forcing the GPU to use 2×2 textures, isolate the vertex unit by using 1×1 scissor rectangle to clip all rasterization and pixel processing, or evaluate driver overhead by sending a command to the instrumented driver telling it to ignore all draw calls. Of course, other debugging techniques may be used.

As described, a developer may interact with the graphics application running on the target device until identifying a frame which exhibits poor performance or unwanted visual artifacts. When such a frame is identified, the developer may transition the graphical application debugger to a debug mode as described above.

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary view of an interface for the frame-debug mode of the graphical application debugger running on the host system (state 320 of FIG. 3). As shown, interface 600 includes a texture display 605, a rendering frame display 610, a slider bar 615, and buttons 620 and 625. Rendering frame display 610 shows the state of a rendering frame, as each draw call is performed. In one embodiment, the content of frame display 610 may be generated from a set of serialized API calls and, once translated, any shader programs transmitted from the remote device to the host system for a given frame.

Slider bar 615 may be used to step through each draw call used to create the frame. For a given draw call, determined based on the position of slider bar 615, texture display 605 may display the contents of the texture units on the target device set for that particular draw call. Buttons 620 and 625 may be used to transition to other debugging modes. Of course, interface 600 provides an example of an interface on a graphical application debugger, and the layout and content may be adapted to suit the needs of developers in a particular case.

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary view of an interface 700 for the performance-profile mode of the graphical application debugger running on the host system (state 330 of FIG. 3). As stated, the when the host system transitions the target device to the profiling mode, the instrumented driver performs a series of tests to query various driver and GPU performance counters for each draw call in the current frame. In one embodiment, this information may be transmitted to the host system for display on the interface provided by the graphical application debugger.

Illustratively, interface 700 shows data obtained from the instrumented driver after performing a series of tests to query various driver and GPU performance counters for each draw call in the current frame. As shown, interface 700 consists of a rendering frame display 710, a slider bar 715, a unit utilization graph 720, and buttons 725 and 730. Rendering frame display 710 shows the state of a rendering frame, as each draw call is performed. Slider bar 715 allows the developer to efficiently navigate through the draw calls of the selected frame. Like frame display 610 of FIG. 6, the content of frame display 710 may be generated from a set of serialized API calls and, once translated, any shader programs transmitted from the remote device to the host system for a given frame.

Illustratively, unit utilization graph 720 shows unit unitization bars for the major units of the graphics pipeline, in this case, a geometry shader unit, vertex shader unit, and a raster operations unit. As shown, for each such unit, the longest bar represents the utilization of that unit for the frame as a whole. The next bar shows the utilization of the units for a group of related draw calls. For example, performance data may be grouped for all draw calls utilizing the shame shader programs, raster operation states and render targets. The shortest bar for each unit represents the utilization of that unit for the current draw call, as specified by the slider 715. Buttons 725 and 730 may be used to transition to other debugging modes. Of course, interface 700 provides an example of an interface on a graphical application debugger, and the layout and content may be adapted to suit the needs of developers in a particular case. For example, other performance visualizations may include draw call durations, double speed z and stencil usage, pixel counts, etc.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram illustrating a method 800 for translating a pre-compiled binary shader as part of debugging a graphics application running on a remote device, according to one embodiment of the invention. Persons skilled in the art will understand that even though the method is described in conjunction with the systems of FIG. 1, any system configured to perform the steps of method 800, in any order, is within the scope of the present invention.

At step 805, the instrumented driver may detect that a graphics application running on the remote device has invoked a function call (e.g., a draw call) provided by the graphics API. In response, at step 810, the instrumented driver may determine whether a pre-compiled binary shader program is bound to one or more shader units in the graphics pipeline of the remote device. If not, then at step 812, the instrumented driver may serialize the graphics API call detected at step 810 and transmit the serialized API call to the host system. That is, rather than simply execute the graphics API call, the instrumented driver may identify which graphics API call was invoked by the graphics application, along with any associated parameters, and encode this information as a serialized steam of bytes. Once received by the host system, at step 860, the stream of bytes may be de-serialized and the de-coded graphics API call may then be executed on graphics hardware present in the host system.

Otherwise, where a pre-compiled binary shader program is bound to one or more shader units in the graphics pipeline of the remote device, then at step 815, the instrumented driver may determine a shader ID associated with the bound shader program. At step 820, the instrumented driver may determine whether the shader program associated with the shader ID identified at step 815 has already been transmitted to the host system during the current debugging session. If so, then at step 825, the instrumented driver may serialize the graphics API call detected at step 810 and transmit the serialized API along with the shader ID call to the host system. Otherwise, if the shader program has not been transmitted during the current debugging system, then at step 830, the binary shader program, shader ID, and serialized API call is transmitted to the host system. At step 835, the shader ID associated with the shader program transmitted at step 830 is added to a shader table maintained by the instrumented driver. In one embodiment, the shader table is used to identify which shader programs have been transmitted over the communication link between the host system and the target device.

Once a given graphics API call, and any associated shader programs, are serialized and transmitted, that graphics API call is executed on the target device in the same manner in which it would be without the instrumented driver. Thus, the operation of the instrumented driver may generally be transparent to the execution of the graphics application on the target device.

At step 845, the host system receives the serialized information transmitted at step 820. Once received, the host component of the graphical application debugger may de-serialize this information and recover the graphics API call and, if present, any binary shader programs and associated shader program IDs. At step 850, the host component of the graphical application debugger may translate the binary shader program from an original form appropriate for the graphics hardware present on the target device into a translated from appropriate for the graphics hardware present on the host system. At step 855, the translated shader program may be stored in a shader program cache. At step 860, the graphics API call may be executed on graphics hardware present in the host system.

As described, embodiments of the invention may be used to “play back” the same graphics API calls made on the remote device to generate a given frame. Further, the graphics hardware on the host system may be configured with the same shader programs (after being translated) used by the graphics hardware on the target device. An instrumented driver may capture and serialize each graphics API call invoked by a graphics application running on the remote device, such as a hand-held videogame system. Advantageously, this approach requires significantly less bandwidth then sending a bitmap for each frame, and thus, results in a more interactive and fluid debugging experience for an application developer. Further, because the graphics hardware on the host system may use the same shader programs used by the target device, the host system may generate and display a frame that is virtually identical to ones generated on the target device.

While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow. 

1. A method for debugging a graphics application configured to execute on a target device, comprising: establishing a communication link between the target device and a host system executing a host component of a graphical application debugger; invoking the graphics application on the target device, wherein the graphics application is configured to invoke graphics API calls implemented by an instrumented driver provided for a graphics pipeline present on the target device, wherein the instrumented driver includes a target component of the graphical application debugger; detecting, for a given frame rendered by the graphics pipeline on the target device, a graphics API call invoked by the graphics application as part of rendering the given frame; identifying a shader program bound to a processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device; serializing the graphics API call and the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes; and transmitting the serialized stream of bytes to the host component of the graphical application debugger over the communication link.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the host system, the serialized stream of bytes; de-serializing the stream of bytes to identify the graphics API call invoked by the graphics application and the shader program; translating the shader program into a form usable by a graphics pipeline present on the host system; binding the translated shader program to a processing unit present on the graphics pipeline on the host system; performing the de-serialized graphics API call to generate a portion of framebuffer data for a display image.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising, storing the translated shader program in a cache of translated shader programs.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the communications link is one of a TCP/IP network connection, a USB connection, a Firewire connection, or an inter-process messaging system.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the target device is one of a hand-held video game device, a hand-held media player, a mobile phone, a development board containing a prototype device, a personal computer system, or a convergence device providing a combination thereof.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, performing the graphics API call on the graphics pipeline of the target device.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein serializing the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes comprises serializing an only identifier associated with the shader program.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device includes one of a vertex shading unit, a geometry shading unit and a raster operations shading unit.
 9. A computer-readable storage medium that includes program instructions that when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform a process for debugging a graphics application configured to execute on a target device, by performing the steps of: establishing a communication link between the target device and a host system executing a host component of a graphical application debugger; invoking the graphics application on the target device, wherein the graphics application is configured to invoke graphics API calls implemented by an instrumented driver provided for a graphics pipeline present on the target device, wherein the instrumented driver includes a target component of the graphical application debugger; detecting, for a given frame rendered by the graphics pipeline on the target device, a graphics API call invoked by the graphics application as part of rendering the given frame; identifying a shader program bound to a processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device; serializing the graphics API call and the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes; and transmitting the serialized stream of bytes to the host component of the graphical application debugger over the communication link.
 10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the steps further comprise: receiving, by the host system, the serialized stream of bytes; de-serializing the stream of bytes to identify the graphics API call invoked by the graphics application and the shader program; translating the shader program into a form usable by a graphics pipeline present on the host system; binding the translated shader program to a processing unit present on the graphics pipeline on the host system; performing the de-serialized graphics API call to generate a portion of framebuffer data for a display image.
 11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the steps further comprise, storing the translated shader program in a cache of translated shader programs.
 12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the communications link is one of a TCP/IP network connection, a USB connection, a Firewire connection, or an inter-process messaging system.
 13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the target device is one of a hand-held video game device, a hand-held media player, a mobile phone, a development board containing a prototype device, a personal computer system, or a convergence device providing a combination thereof.
 14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the steps further comprise, performing the graphics API call on the graphics pipeline of the target device.
 15. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein serializing the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes comprises serializing an only identifier associated with the shader program.
 16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 9, wherein the processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device includes one of a vertex shading unit, a geometry shading unit and a raster operations shading unit.
 17. A system for debugging a graphics application configured to execute on a target device, comprising: a communication link between a target device and a host system, wherein the host system executes a host component of a graphical application debugger; the graphics application, wherein the graphics application is configured to invoke graphics API calls implemented by an instrumented driver provided for a graphics pipeline present on the target device, wherein the instrumented driver includes a target component of the graphical application debugger; and the instrumented driver on the target device, wherein the instrumented driver is configured to: establish the communication link between the target device and the host system executing a host component of a graphical application debugger, detect, for a given frame rendered by the graphics pipeline on the target device, a graphics API call invoked by the graphics application as part of rendering the given frame, identify a shader program bound to a processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device, serialize the graphics API call and the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes, and transmit the serialized stream of bytes to the host component of the graphical application debugger over the communication link.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the host component of the graphical application debugger is configured to: receive the serialized stream of bytes; de-serialize the stream of bytes to identify the graphics API call invoked by the graphics application and the shader program; translate the shader program into a form usable by a graphics pipeline present on the host system; bind the translated shader program to a processing unit present on the graphics pipeline on the host system; perform the de-serialized graphics API call to generate a portion of framebuffer data for a display image.
 19. The system of claim 18, wherein the host component of the graphical application debugger is further configured to, store the translated shader program in a cache of translated shader programs.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein the communications link is one of a TCP/IP network connection, a USB connection, a Firewire connection, or an inter-process messaging system.
 21. The method of claim 17, wherein the target device is one of a hand-held video game device, a hand-held media player, a mobile phone, a development board containing a prototype device, a personal computer system, or a convergence device providing a combination thereof.
 22. The method of claim 17, wherein the host component of the graphical application debugger is further configured to perform the graphics API call on the graphics pipeline of the target device.
 23. The method of claim 17, wherein serializing the shader program as a serialized stream of bytes comprises serializing an only identifier associated with the shader program.
 24. The method of claim 17, wherein the processing unit on the graphics pipeline present on the target device includes one of a vertex shading unit, a geometry shading unit and a raster operations shading unit. 